The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by ‘Cowboys For Trump’ founder, Couy Griffin, seeking to overturn a lower court ruling removing him from office under the 14th Amendment over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The ruling comes weeks after the high court overturned the Colorado Supreme Court ruling removing Trump from the ballot under the Constitution’s disqualification clause. The clause says that any individual who previously took an oath to the Constitution while holding a government position but later “engaged in insurrection” cannot run for public office.
Griffin, a founder of “Cowboys for Trump,” was convicted of a misdemeanor for entering Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021 and was sentenced to 14 days in prison.
In September 2022, State District Court Judge Francis Mathew ordered that Griffin be removed from his elected position as Otero County Commissioner “effective immediately” over his role in the Capitol attack.
“Due to his disqualification under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, defendant is constitutionally ineligible and barred for life from serving as a ‘Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President,” or from ‘hold[ing] any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State,’ including his current office as an Otero County Commissioner,” Mathew wrote in his ruling.
Opponents to Griffin and Trump candidacy cited the same constitutional provision—section 3 of the 14th Amendment— and Griffin had hoped that Trump’s win at SCOTUS would help him in his case.
But, in Trump’s case the justices stated that the provision could not be used to remove the former president from the ballot because he’s a federal candidate and only Congress has that authority.
That means the same would not apply to Griffin who was an elected official at the local level.
